Her hands shake slightly, and I realise she’s holding something else back. She turns her head just enough for me to see the devastation on her face. “Do you remember Cora’s wedding?”
Of course I do. She was glowing and distant and… off.
“I was late. Two weeks late. I thought I was pregnant.”
The world comes to a crashing halt.
Everything in me goes still—lungs, heart, thought. It’s like all the air has been sucked out of the room, out of me. My stomach turns violently, bile rising as the horror of what she’s saying hits like a freight train I can’t step away from.
She nods slowly, watching me come apart, watching her words tear through me.
“After you left to head back to the hotel, I dragged Abbie into Cora’s kitchen, panicking. I knew I couldn’t go to a doctor or buy a test myself. I couldn’t risk anyone seeing and asking questions, not with who we were. She sat with me in the bathroom and held my hand while I shook so hard I thought I’d fall apart, waiting for Logan to get the tests. Six of them. All negative. And still, I sobbed like my heart had been ripped out. Because for five whole minutes, I thought I’d have to bring a baby into the world alone. And I knew, even then, you wouldn’t fight for me.”
Something breaks loose inside me, something jagged and irreversible.
I’m in front of her before I even realise I’ve moved, dropping to my knees at her feet as she perches on the edge of the bed, resting my forehead against hers. Her words slice through me—clean, cruel—leaving nothing but ache in their wake. The thought of her sitting there—terrified, alone—thinking she couldn’t come to me, that she had to hide… it crushes me from the inside out.
Christ, she may as well put a bullet through my chest. It would hurt less.
My throat burns as I reach for her. “Jesus, Lil’…”
“And even when I found out I wasn’t pregnant, I still felt like I lost something, the stupid belief I’d been clinging to that somehow,somehowwe would be okay was shattered that day.”
“I didn’t know. I swear to God, if I had—”
“You would’ve what?” She cuts me off. “Married me in secret? Fought your father? Walked away from the contract? Or would you have left me the same way you did when everything else fell apart?”
“I would’ve donesomething,” I protest, guilt clawing at me as the image of her terrified and alone—thinking she couldn’t turn to me—haunts me.
“Can you see now why I need you to bleed for me, Matt? To get your hands dirty and put me first, just once?”
I stare up at her, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“Failing you is my biggest regret,” I whisper. “I failed you and nothing I say tonight can erase that. I don’t expect it to. But I need you to know this—I never stopped loving you. I never stopped missing you.”
My voice breaks.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to make it right. If you want me to crawl through fire, cut out my heart, and lay it at your feet, I will. Name your price, baby. I’ll pay it.”
“I thought maybe… after a year, I’d see you, and I’d feel nothing,” she confesses. “But this is worse. Because I still feel everything. And I still don’t trust any of it.”
I know this isn’t the moment to touch her. It’s the moment to tear everything open—blood, bone, guilt, grief. So I do. I laymyself bare at her feet and pray to a God I don’t believe in that it’s enough.
“I thought I could bury it,” I admit. “Survive the contract. Marry Gianna on paper. Play the role and kill whatever I felt.” A rough breath. “But even when I doubted you, I couldn’t move on. I’ve been trapped in your web for four years, sweetheart, and the truth is, I never want to escape.”
I drag my forehead to hers, close enough that the heat from my breath fogs the tiny space between us. Her pupils explode, gold rimmed with fear, and for a second, the room becomes nothing but the sound of our breathing and the distant hiss of rain.
Her gaze softens slightly, but her chest heaves with hurt and disbelief. “And the contract? Gianna? How is that—”
I swallow, pain lancing through me. “We think Salvatore is behind the ring. Jonathan wants me to play the part for now while we keep digging, but the wedding is off. Even if it wasn’t… I’m done letting this world tell me who I’m allowed to love. It’s robbed too many years from us as it is. If I have to walk away from all of it for you, I will. You mean far more to me than that shit ever did.”
She flinches at the words, as if the weight of my confession is physical. “You were… in love with me, the whole time. And I—” Her voice cracks. “And I thought you abandoned me.”
I lean forward, desperate, my eyes locked on hers. “I never left you. Even when I didn’t know what was real or fake, I couldn’t turn my back on you, sweetheart. Not then. Not now. Never.” My voice breaks. “Everything I did—every wrong step, every terrible choice—was me trying not to lose you in a world that would’ve chewed us both up.”
She’s silent, trembling slightly, letting the truth sink in.That’s the moment I’ve been waiting for. The wall is cracking. Maybe—just maybe—we can start again.
“You can’t just come back like nothing's changed,” she chokes out, voice brittle, but it’s a challenge now, not a command.
